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3 thoughts on “The downfall of my starter experiment…”

You know, it doesn’t have to be open to the elements – it’ll get enough bacteria just from existing, and it’ll get enough yeast from whatever’s wild in the flour. Once you get it started, it doesn’t have to be out on the counter, either – I keep mine in the fridge, ’cause I don’t bake often enough to really let it be out all the time.

Still … pineapple juice really works, too. 😉

Best of luck! Keep trying! It’ll protect itself, once you get it up and going. This is the hardest part.

Also, looking at your picture, it doesn’t look like the mold is growing on the starter either. I’ve had this happen and I just carefully remove my starter from the container, making sure I don’t touch the mold. Put the starter in a clean home and keep feeding. If green stuff grows on the starter then you have problems otherwise, you should be OK. I also keep my babes slightly covered when I’m letting the live on the counter/in the oven (light on, oven off) or on top of the fridge!

I follow the Basic Sourdough Starter recipe & instructions from “Wild Fermentation” by Sandor Ellix Katz (you can view the book from Google!). If you want to ‘speed’ up the process of capturing the wild yeasts in the air, the book suggest that you can put any organic fruit with edible skins especially the ones that has the chalky film of yeast, just don’t forget to spoon them out when you’re about to use the starter. Just as what DaviMack suggested, once your sourdough bubbles, seal the container, place it in the fridge and feed it every week, unless you’re going to use it that day.